Rain Dampens Baseball Openers

Rain affected Spokane Valley Baseball before the season started.

Inclement weather, which resulted in makeup games for junior high baseball teams, meant that most Giants League games had to be rescheduled.

Among those that were played, last year’s tourney runnerup Broadway Eye Care Center opened with a rush, winning 32-1. Jade Webley went 4-for-4 including a triple and two doubles, scored six runs and drove in six others for the victors.

Tom Watson had three hits, scoring each time.

Midget League

Dave’s Grill, one of five Midget League two-game winners, did so in rousing fashion.

The Sunrise team won by a combined 40-0 score, getting no-hit pitching from Tyler Luedtke, who struck out 11 during a four-inning stint, and Sean Thompson, who had three innings of no-hit, no-run pitching.

Thompson was one of four players with three runs batted in apiece.

Another unbeaten, Skipper Bill’s, got three 8-strikeout shutout innings from Grant Bruscoe during one victory.

During its initial 17-16 win, Players & Spectators left a pair of Ethan Allen players in scoring position when James Hemmerling caught a two-out line drive at third base.

Blake Trimmer had two hits and four RBI’s.

Ethan Allen’s Ken Mayhew allowed no runs and struck out eight in three innings and hit a single and triple during victory over Pepsi.

Elsewhere, Brandon Humphrey came in with two outs in the sixth and fanned seven straight batters during a 5-5 tie betweeen Valley Electric and Gibson’s Nursery.

Brian Dagon had 10 strikeouts in four innings of a 14-14 tie between Spokane County Firefighters and Dr. DeCounter.

Pee Wee League

Eight teams got off to perfect 2-0 starts in the 27-team Pee Wee League for 9- and 10-year-olds.

One of those was Grocery Outlet, whose pitcher Alix Mills fanned 10 batters during one three-inning outing and had 14 total over five innings during the week.

Teammate T.J. Wilson went 3-for-3 during one win and struck out seven batters in another, part of a three-pitcher 17 strikeout game.

For double winner Homestead Construction, Zach Malone drove in four of the team’s five runs in one game and scored two of four runs in the other.

Tug Beach’s debut for Medicine Shoppe included four hits in two games, for runs scored and six driven in.

Pitcher Nick Burger struck out a dozen batters during the two games.

Other highlights included grand-slam home runs by Kevin Hart for Bagle Company and Michael Smith for Art Conscious, a triple and double by Spokane Olympic Sports’s Shawn Roberts to account for all three of his team’s runs, and a combined 15-strikeout effort by CXT pitchers Mark Lensyel and Tanner Hamilton.